Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley):
They’re burning kids alive in Gaza. They’re burning them alive. And still people are silent, or are actively supporting Israel, or are spouting mealy-mouthed both-sides gibberish while shrugging their shoulders.
A spiritual teacher who I used to like posted the most obnoxious screed today babbling about how both Israelis and Palestinians are suffering in this “war” and that, while Israel does have a “right to defend itself”, it’s time for a ceasefire to be reached.
This is a guy who’s made a career out of presenting himself as so wise, insightful and enlightened that people should pay him money to hear what he has to say about life and spiritual attainment, finally deciding to speak out about a genocide that’s been going on for nearly 20 months now, and saying the most vapid, infantile nonsense imaginable. I know teenagers who could’ve done a much better job.
And from where I’m sitting, if this is the best you can do after a lifetime dedicated to spiritual insight and awakening, then what good was any of it? If you can’t even take a solid stance against history’s first live-streamed genocide after decades of spiritual seeking and spiritual finding, then it kinda seems like you’ve been wasting your life this whole time.
And I guess I feel pretty much the same way about everyone who still isn’t taking a stand on this thing. This is not a complicated issue. It doesn’t take a tremendous amount of learning, wisdom or morality to wind up on the correct side of this thing. You don’t have to be a buddha, a scholar or a saint to oppose an active genocide. You just have to not be all fucked up inside.
There is only one correct position to have on the Gaza holocaust, and if you still haven’t managed to find your way into that position then I think it’s fair to say you have been wasting your life on this planet up until this point.
I mean, what have you even been doing here exactly? You clearly haven’t been working on becoming a decent person. You haven’t been learning about the world. You haven’t been expanding your awareness of justice and inequality. You haven’t been working on developing a truth-based relationship with reality. You haven’t been developing empathy for your fellow human beings. You haven’t been growing or maturing. What exactly have you been doing? How have you managed to spend your entire life avoiding all the most important things about living as a human organism on this planet?
It’s not too late to change this, of course. It’s never too late to change. If you still haven’t taken your stand against the genocide in Gaza, you can change this right away. If you don’t know enough about what’s happening, get curious and start learning. If you’re having trouble discerning fact from fiction, get humble and ask questions. If you’re having trouble sorting out right from wrong, get quiet inside and look in your heart. You’ve got this.
You don’t need any special qualifications to speak out against the Gaza holocaust. You are already fully qualified to do so. Many people far more ignorant and far less ethical than yourself are already speaking out in support of Israel’s actions, so you should feel free to use your own voice just as loudly. Learn as much as you can, but don’t feel like you need to be some kind of expert to speak out against a genocide that’s been facilitated by your own government.
Get moving on this. There’s no time to lose. Children are burning, and the clock is running out. Take a firm position on the great moral issue of our time, or be prepared to spend the rest of your life explaining why you didn’t.
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